Hey everyone! I am currently developing a singleplayer Zombie Survival RPG called Undead Valley (small plug: pre-alpha is available to try on my itch page). However, one issue I am having within the development is making it so the game is engaging for longer periods of time. A problem a lot of people seem to have with survival games is that they can get boring quite fast, many of them being a lot of resource and bar management (eg. need food to keep hunger bar up, need water to prevent thirst etc). Some games in the genre however, manage to keep the player engaged for hours of play, and keep them coming back day after day. Personally I feel like this is often achieved by allowing the player to set their own goals to work towards, however this is something I am struggling to capture in my game. 

If anyone has any thoughts, or could share what keeps them engaged in a game, it would be much appreciated.

- DrunkardWolf

Hey DrunkardWolf, I believe engagment is pretty much the golen standard in terms of an enjoyable game.  I believe narration and sounds are a game changer, as an indie developer myself though I know this can be a challenge, but essentially the more you can make the player feel like they are in the world themselves, the more engaged they will become. Each sound, whether it be a zombie grunt or a player getting excited for defeating that difficult wave of zombies, adds more life to the game, and that's when players start to care more. 

https://onerepcloser.itch.io/vanguardian